Today things went much smoother then yesterday. First of all, I have realized I have asked too much too soon, without taking baby steps and checking where we are. At walk the "accordion" exercise went very well, he was happy to stretch and extend his walk and come back was smooth. The rising trot, too, went well. I did the following exercise: stretching and lengthening on 20 m circle, bringing him up during spiraling in and letting him stretch and extend spiraling out. I liked that, worked really well. For the sitting trot I have decided not to ask too much lengthening of the neck, for now. I figured he needs time to learn to wait for me, to keep his balance and to get used to the "accordion" effect. Technically, it worked well for him, however, "accordion" wasn't as dramatic as for rising trot. For the canter I did the same, I let him lengthen his neck only as much as we could handle: he was keeping his balance and I was keeping control.

Another thing I have figured out today. I told you I was having trouble with the right bend, he was heavy on the right rein. I think I found another missing piece. Lately I was working really hard to keep my right seatbone down and stretching my right leg down. It really helped me going left, I can feel now how much control I have over his haunches with my right seatbone down on the left turns. However, going right I forgot about my left seatbone, which is naturally down by itself. I forgot to use it and my outside left leg for the right turns. Using my right seatbone and leg better pushed him over to the left, but my outside aids didn't catch him, and he was losing his balance. When I thought of riding a slight travers on the circle to the right, he became much more balanced. Read about muscles imbalances on my website, click here.

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